Josh on Sunday School bus, 1984 As a Christian, how can I have a good self image? Well, “what a person believes other people think about them,” is how the world looks at a self-image. So, lets start there. When a person has a poor self-image, it hints to me they are still a bit on the subjective side. In other words, they may unconsciously care about what others think because they must have a good evaluation next time they do a check. Fine! God’s response to these types, (maybe all of us), expresses how He thinks about us, and that is His answer. He can’t, however, impress us with His evaluation till we come to our end of self-evaluation. See, we are so full of other standards of measurement, God’s gauge can’t find it’s way in there. I know we can say all the big words, but honestly, our…
Tag: <span>brokenness</span>
Covering is God’s way of creating capacity, of stirring compassion, of conforming people to His nature by giving them space to grow, space to fail, space to rebound, space to fall again, space to grow out of that, and space to rebound again. This is what God’s covering does for us. It gives us room to breathe. Dr. Carl Stevens Can you explore? Do you have freedom to do that? Can you run, or do you always walk? Can you dance; sing? Most watch, few participate, and this illustrates life in general. Granted, a person learns a job, performs, sometimes creates, and athletes run and performers dance. Not what I mean— well, what then? Capacity varies from person to person—yes aptitude for life. Psalm 34:18 says “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.” The broken in…
My precious pastor taught me about grace. I wept for joy many times listening to its lovely flow. He told us a story about a cup of grace and it goes this way: A young boy took abuse in a home with drug addicts as parents. Apparently these derelicts needed most of their money to feed their habits, so food portions were scantily distributed. This young boy was limited to a morsel of food that was far from adequate, and badgered with “eating too much will result in dire consequences.” Thankfully the abusive situation was uncovered by the authorities. The child was placed in a foster home, separated from his perverted parents, and one day our pastor got a call from that safe haven. It seems, they couldn’t get their new member to eat. Well, Pastor arrived, puzzled about the problem. It was explained to him: the boy…
“nothing so shortens and soothes your pain as the spirit of non-resistance to Your Lord” Francis Fenelon A man or a woman must hold significance together with their security, these two, or life function loses oomph! The human, destined for love, equally acquires this love, and also distributes it, or life bogs down. Not just one action suffices. Both show up, and no less, because life must flow river-like, coming in and going out. God claims to know our down sitting, but also our uprising. This is spoken of in the Psalms, (139 to be exact). If we forsake the fountain of living waters inflow in Jeremiah 2:13, these waters refrain their eventual outflow from our belly, (emotions), in John 7:38, and we die spiritually. Well, Alexander Bell invented a telephone system. In each system he built a speaker but also a receiver. Why? Exchange baby — exchange! A marriage…
The Bible tells us, The fear of man brings a snare,( Proverbs 29:25). and a big snare it is. So big, this snare, it invades a whole life from beginning to end. Call it what you may; paranoia, phobia, insecurity, or dread; fear grips a lot of people and sticks them into corners they hate, but can’t escape. Man, scares man the most — the unpredictability, the instability, the irrationality, the stupidity, the impulsivity; need I continue? Me scares me too. Is there help? Why do men build up their bodies, carry a weapon, put a tattoo on their arm or form a gang? They do it because in the world of fear, strength and advantage mean everything. Fighting is often fear driven. So are a lot of sports. As a boy I played football and became known in our circles as an illusive runner. My secret? I was afraid…
Some aspects of Christmas disclose themselves covertly: The Christ-child, tiny babe, was also Mankind’s Savior and continues our Personal Defender. You see, justice precedes love in God’s saving scheme, and we must see this. Justice and judgment must factor in, or we lose realness. Without grounds for judicial release in the objects of love, love has not much meaning. Moses, in Exodus 15, led Israel three days without water toward Mara. The waters there were bitter and the people shrieked. Who could blame them, but was there a meaning? Moses begged an answer from God, crying with body prostrated. God showed him a tree and Moses threw the tree into the water, and the waters were made sweet. First thought is: God, using God’s man, leads them, but they hate the bluntness of circumstance. Number two, God wants to demonstrate justice and truth, so he judges the bitter…
Wherein does restraint come from? For a grace person, the gift of God’s Holy Spirit, the Person, becomes my new restrictor. He is also known as the Spirit of grace in Heb 10:29. In John 13 He convicts. What does this mean? It means I can no longer use grace as a license to sin because He has the ability to make my life miserable when I do. How? Well, when The Holy Spirit, becomes grieved or quenched, He withdraws Himself, and this takes away the witness of my son-ship. He points out my failure, and encourages me to change my mind. If He is pushed to the periphery, the sense of God’s love and my security in Him also fade. Grace loses it’s practicality in my experience. If I ignore all His pleadings, He lets me reap what I have sown. See, the belittling of grace becomes a mockery…